Portuguese (Brazil) · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "jovem" in Portuguese (Brazil)?

Q: How do you pronounce jovem in Portuguese (Brazil)?

jovem is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈʒɔ.vẽj̃/. It means “young.” ZHAW-vayng. The j is the soft sound in "measure," and the ending is a nasal diphthong.

ZHAW-vayng. The j is the soft sound in "measure," and the ending is a nasal diphthong.

jovem /ˈʒɔ.vẽj̃/

Here the default rule does real work. Words ending in -em are stressed on the second-to-last syllable, so "jo-" takes the weight and no accent is needed. Compare "também," which needs an acute accent precisely because it breaks this rule and stresses the final -em instead. The plural is "jovens," which keeps the stress in the same place.

Listen: jovem

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Sound it out

j Always the soft "zh" in Portuguese — the s in "measure" or the g in French "rouge." Never the hard English j of "jump," which Portuguese spells with a d plus a following i-sound.

o An open o, jaw down and lips loosely rounded, like the vowel in "thought." This is the stressed syllable and the loudest part of the word.

vem A true v, then the nasal diphthong: a closed e gliding to a nasalized y, giving "vayng." The lips do not come together despite the written m.

Hear it in a sentence

Ele ainda é muito jovem.

He is still very young.

Listen: Ele ainda é muito jovem.

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"Ele ainda é muito jovem" contains "ainda," a three-syllable word with a hiatus at the front — ah-EEN-dah — and its own nasal. So the sentence has nasals in "ainda," in "muito" and at the end of "jovem," three in a row, which is very typical Portuguese texture.

Where English speakers slip

The hard English j is the standard error — "JOH-vem" sounds wrong immediately. Make it "zh." The ending is the second problem, with learners closing their lips on an m instead of releasing a nasal diphthong. And the open o gets missed too: using a closed "oh" shifts the vowel noticeably away from what Brazilians say.